Well I've been gone for awhile... I like to write. I like to tell people cool thing. I like to blog.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

May 30th 2011

Well it sounds like things are just moving along. I saw the picture Jackie took at the cemetery. Everyone looks the same except the boys with their long hair and 5 inches taller. Ellie looked taller as well. It’s crazy how much goes on in a year. This week was pretty good. Monday after emailing we had a bunch of time to do stuff so I wrote 10 letters! Some of them were longer than others but still that’s a lot. Hopefully that will result in some mail. We'll see. My companion really likes to take care of his skin and stuff so at 5 we went to a nail salon and got our eye brows waxed. I had never done it and I am willing to try anything so I went ahead and did it myself. I probably won't ever do it again. It wasn’t bad or anything. The lady looked at me and told me I don’t really need it cuz my eye brows aren't that crazy. I'm just not a very hairy person I guess. The rest of the night we just saw a bunch of people. Tuesday was a great day! We had interviews with president Jardine and then training as well from sister Jardine. It was great. They trained on correcting out of love as well as accepting correction even when it isn't done out of love. We didn't get done with those till 5! So we went home got ready to go then the Spanish elders picked us up cuz we were going to have dinner with them and a Mexican family in their ward. Elder Garcia hooks us up because he is from Mexico and he will talk to them at church and stuff and then they want us to come over. They love it when you eat a lot of their food because they think that means you like it so they love me as well. Little do they know I’ll eat anything. Afterwards we went out and visited an investigator named Lashanda. It was good. We set up an appointment with her for Friday. We also met another Mexican member and they invited us over for dinner on Saturday when they fed their elders ha. It’s awesome because I do love Mexican food. Wednesday I had a leadership meeting in the morning. It was good. Then we had lunch. We had to rush over to a lady named Anita’s house. She is black and is African American. She is also Jehovah Witness. We pretty much bashed the whole time. She said we can come over this Wednesday again but probably not anymore. Probably because she couldn't explain to me why her church doesn't have a prophet when her bible says there will always be one. Then we had to ride our bikes as fast as we could for a long time to have a lesson with a girl named Lachelle. She is YSA so we were going to be teaching her with the zone leaders so they could take over afterwards. She wasn't home though. Then we went to see a lot of people. We then had dinner with the Lindsey’s. It was pretty good. We had fried chicken ha. Then we had a correlation meeting with our ward mission leader and ward missionaries then we rushed over to an appointment but the guy wasn't home so we went and visited Nancy. Then we went home. Thursday morning we had a district meeting. It was good. I hope. I trained on inviting people to make commitments, how to get them to commit then how to follow up on it. It was good. Then we roll played committing people to living the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, or the Law of Tithing. It was fun. We had lunch then I went on exchanges with Elder Taufu'i and Elder Shelton. They are in a three some so it was fun. They are in the Elk Grove Park ward. The one I used to be in. It was fun. We switched back up that night. Friday we had weekly planning. Then we had an appointment with Lashanda. A member came with us and it was good. She has a lot of really good questions; she just needs to let us teach so we can answer them. Then we went tracting. We had dinner with a member and they took us out to hometown buffet. It’s the same thing as old country buffet. It was super good. They had steak. Then we went and talked with a less active member. After that we went and visited Clair. It was her birthday. Saturday we had a lot of appointments but only one held. We just talked to a lot of people other than that. The appointment was with a kid named Brian. He was a joke. He let us teach the whole restoration lesson but then told us reading and praying would be a waste of his time. Oh well people can do what they want I guess. We went tracting later that day then hurried up to our dinner with the Mexican family. We had Chicken Mole (molay) which I know Uncle David would be jealous of. It was super good. Then we stopped at the pharmacy to get some more Sudafed cuz I hadn't been taking it for a month and my allergies were getting bad again but now I’m all good. Sunday I went to sacrament meeting at the Elk Grove building with the Elk Grove Park ward. It was awesome. I was down there doing a baptismal interview for a guy named Anthony. Finally someone passed... Church was good and I got to say hi to a lot of old friends. Then I went back up to church in our ward. It was good. This guy gave an amazing talk on being a disciple as well and being disciplined and how they are the same. I took notes it was so good. Then we went home had dinner then went on a blitz it was good. Then we went to sleep. Today I am sad to say I did not do anything fun. We played soccer but had to leave early cuz our ride was leaving. Now I am emailing. We are going to go to Sam’s club with a member now and it should be fun. I hope everything back home is going good.

So this week was swell except for the rain, which soaked me from Monday through Wednesday morning. Monday night was an ok night. My companion wanted to leave an hour early so he could get his eye brows waxed. So the place turned out to be closed on Mondays so we biked out into the rain and hour early for no reason. I didn't think it was going to rain so I didn't even wear my rain pants over my normal pants. After we got some Panda Express. Then we went home. Tuesday was a nice day, except for the rain. I swear rain will be the death of me. We went to an appointment; they weren't home, so we went and visited Nancy. She was doing good. She hasn't drank for like a whole week so once we get the guyout it will all be good to go for her to get baptized. After that we went and saw Sandy. She was a lady that we met because some random black lady told us to go see her. She is nice. Her whole family is LDS but she has been too busy taking care of her husband with cancer to do anything. So when we got there on Tuesday she was outside crying. Her husband had passed away on Saturday. She wasn't taking it too good. She said it wasn't the fact that he died it was the way it happened. I guess he suffered all day Saturday then passed away at night. We shared a short message and prayed for her. We have another appointment with her this Thursday. Hopefully things work out for her cuz the gospel could really bless her life. Then we went home and had lunch. We had to rush to the other side of our area to make it to an appointment. The lady was asleep and not feeling well so we went to see our backups. It poured so hard for like 20 min. then completely stopped and the sun came out. It was super weird. We talked to a lot of interesting people on Tuesday but it was fun. Wednesday I went with the Zone Leaders and two other District leaders in the zone and we all drove down to Lodi at 8 for a leadership training meeting. It was awesome! It was funny cuz President and Sister Jardine were way more into business and hard core mode because we were all leaders and so we could all mostly understand what was happening and how important it was. It was an awesome meeting. I got to see some good friends from the mission. Elder Byrum took me to lunch and we hung out for a little bit. He is a cool chill guy. After the meeting I met Elder Garcia at a lady’s house. He was in a lesson with another missionary there. It was good and we will be going back on Wednesday. The lady is a Jehovah witness. She is confused. We had a great Japanese dinner at the Hahn’s. They were the ones who let us call home at their house. They both grew up in Hawaii and have a Ukulele but no one knows how to play it so they let me mess around with it sometimes. After dinner we had correlation then we went and talked to a guy who told us the Pope is the beast that is going to usher in the second coming. He was nice though. Thursday we had district meeting in the morning. I trained on what President Jardine trained us on. Getting people to church. It was good. I also trained on contacting people on the streets and getting return appointments with them. Afterwards we had a couple of appointments that fell through so we tracted for a good long while. It was good. We later went and saw some nice Referrals we had received. We had Sam’s Club pizza at home for dinner. A member dropped it off and me and Elder Garcia ate the whole Pepperoni one and left the combination to Elder Pelfrey and Elder Bevridge. He didn't give us a drink though. I guess he thought Elder Bevridge had that one taken care of... just kidding. I like his name... After dinner we went out with a member to see a few people we had appointments with. They all fell through so we went and saw a less active lady.It was fun. He did a good job calming her down though. He is awesome. Him and his family will be getting sealed this weekend after him just being baptized a year ago! It’s awesome. Friday we had weekly planning. Then we went out to go to an appointment we had. The guy wasn't home but there was a girl outside next door to his house so we went over and talked to her. She had met with missionaries in the past but she got a new number so they couldn't get in contact with her anymore. She was real cool. We taught her and it was awesome. She will be YSA though. We again tracted a lot. It was fun. I enjoy tracting. At the beginning of my mission I loved it but then I stopped liking it but now I like it again. It’s fun. We had dinner at a Meinh person’s house. It was a really good soup they make. It had different kinds of meat in it as well as cow stomach. Elder Garcia told us he wouldn't eat anything weird so we told him they were noodles then revealed the truth afterwards. Cow stomach is actually called Tripe which isn't bad at all. We went to see Dave and Heidi afterwards. No suits and ties... They told us to call next time because they are going through some crap and don't want us to see it. As if we haven’t seen it already. Saturday the world was supposed to end! According to a preacher in Oakland. I don't know if reached all over the United States but this guy said he calculated it and Saturday at six p.m. in each time zone the apocalypse was going to start. Well it didn't. We went and saw a lot of people in the morning. We tracted a lot then we saw some people we are trying to get working with. We had dinner with a lady named Sister Reeder. We went and had a nice visit with Clair. She is trying to get out of the place she’s living in because some shady crap is going on there. Afterwards we went home to call people to set them up for church. Sunday... Sundays used to be my favorite day of the week as a missionary but now it’s the most stressful! Church was good. Mrs. Kelley came again and also had to leave after sacrament meeting because she is old and her back was hurting. Nancy came as well. She doesn't have any medicine for her mental disorder so she was all scared and stuff. We calmed her down enough to come to sacrament meeting then she had to go home because she was shaking too much. After church we had dinner. It was some good Meinh food. They cook a bunch of different Asian vegetables in different meats and it tastes real good over some sticky rice. Then we went and talked to a few people. We were trying to get as many people to President Jardines last Cottage meeting in Elk Grove. A cottage meeting is just President Jardine teaching basically the first lesson at the stake center. He rocks it though. Being a lawyer he can really talk in front of large crowds. We tried to get some people there but Nancy was too scared. Mrs. Kelley was too tired Clair had a seizure about an hour before so she couldn't go so we were banking on a less active lady and her three un baptized kids. They said they would come when we called them at 6. So we went and was waiting for them. The meeting started at 7:30 and they called us at 8 to tell us they weren't going to come. It was a good meeting though. Then we went home and planned then went to sleep. Today we aren't going to do much. One of our Zone leaders is going to Coloma which is an old history site where President Jardine takes all the missionaries that are about to go home. The other zone leader loves rock climbing so he was trying to get everyone to go to this place that cost 12 bucks to rock climb. I'm not exactly what people call light or skinny so it’s not fun for me. Only like 5 people are going. Everyone else is just going to do their own thing. We are going to write a bunch of letters. I don't get a lot so I decided I'm going to write a butt load of people, even if I've already written them without a response and hopefully it will result in more letters in the future. I guess I’m getting to the point where after a year no one remembers why they liked you and were friends with you so they don't care to correspond thinking if they liked you before they will later either way. I really don't think that but it sounds good. Well this is definitely one of my longer emails. It was fun to hear about everything going on back at home. Don't worry mom, in 51 weeks I’ll be home to relieve some of your chauffeuring duties. It’s exciting to hear about the boys and their sports. What position is Braden going to play? And that’s fun that porter can be a good pitcher. I hope everyone else is doing good. I love you guys a lot. This work is so awesome and so true. I have been taking a step back a lot lately during lessons and I like to picture what’s going on and even though it’s been a whole year it still seems so crazy that I'm actually a missionary. It feels so right to be doing missionary work. It’s a natural thing and its awesome doing what God wants you to do. Keep up the good work.

Monday, May 16, 2011

May 16th 2011

Well this week sounded like it was exciting... Monday was a good night. We went by to see a few people most weren't home but we had a good lesson with Nancy, the lady we had dropped but we felt like just seeing how she was doing. It was good. She and the guy living with her said they wanted to get married and quit drinking together so we said we would start working on that with them. When we were done with her it was time to go home. Tuesday morning we had a leadership meeting for the zone. It was good. We just talked about some of the things going on in our district and what we were planning on training on in the next district meeting. We had a lot of appointments on Tuesday but they all fell through except one. It was a bummer. We talked to some people; it was a fairly nice day. After dinner we had a lesson with a less active lady name Cynthia. She has 4 unbaptized kids so we are teaching them and getting them ready for baptism. After that we headed home. Wednesday we had district meeting.

It’s kind of weird being the one training rather than being trained too but it was good I think. It went pretty smooth so I liked it. Afterwards we had a lesson with a Jehovah Witness lady named Anita. We had a good lesson and agreed with many things. We have an appointment with her again this week and I have a feeling we won't agree as much when we teach the First Vision. We had a few other appointments that fell through. We had an appointment at one corner of our area and then we had dinner 8 miles away at the other corner. It was a good bike ride.

That day we had to of biked over 25 miles. After dinner we went home and waiting for the Zone leaders to come over so we could switch up for exchanges. Elder Clark came into my area. He is super awesome. On Wednesday Elder Clark and I had a great time. We went and taught Nancy in the morning. The guy that lives there wasn't there and she expressed her true feelings and she is terrified of the guy. On Tuesday he broke a mirror over her head! So she gave us her sister’s phone number and stuff so we can work with her to get him out of there. I feel like a secret agent. He is a bad guy.

He lied to our face about having beer. He had 3 cans of it in a sack and told us they were hot dogs. We had lunch at a Taco Truck. It was super tasty. Elder Clark was called Spanish so he likes Spanish missionaries more so we had lunch with all of them and it was cool.

Later we saw a bunch of people. Thursday was the day of crazy people.

I can't wait to tell people at home about the crazies here in Sac Town. I had to just walk away from people because people were making me laugh so hard from being so ridiculous. Elder Clark got a flat tire so we had to patch it up but we didn't have a pump then we had dinner at a buffet, then I had to go do my first baptismal interview. She failed. I felt bad but she will be baptized soon. She had to get another interview the next day from President Martinez in the mission presidency. Then we went and saw a few people and then went home to switch back up. Friday was a swell day.We had weekly Planning, went tracting then had a great lesson with a lady named Mrs. Kelley. She is like 80 years old but is totally solid and ready for the gospel. After the first vision she was crying and said, that’s what I want. We had dinner then another lesson with Cynthia and her kids. It was tight.

Then we went home. Saturday was crazy. It was cold so after going out all morning, thinking it would warm up; we had to go home to get sweaters on so we weren't freezing. We didn't have lunch till 3 then we had dinner at 5. It was too much food. We went to see a few people then we went to Cynthia’s to set them up for church even though they didn't come... Church was good on Sunday. Mrs. Kelley came. She loved it but had to leave after Sacrament meeting. She is awesome. We had good church then dinner then we had a blitz. Then we set some goals.

It was a good Sunday. We are still trying to find people to teach, it’s going great. The mission is on track to hit a record for May, I wanna help but people have to be ready first. Clair will count for May cuz she was confirmed in May so that helped. Well I hope you all have a good week. Good luck to Porter on Play offs, and Hayley graduating. I love you all. Oh yeah and if Brother Chaides reads this on my blog, know that the pizza was good and you rock! He found it a little while ago ha. See ya

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

May 9th 2011

Well it sounds like things at home are just moving along. Hayley is as white as ever ha. This week has been pretty good. Kind of weird but I learned a lot and missionary work is just moving along. Tuesday night was spent visiting some different people. We had three appointments for all three hours we go out after P-day and none were home. So we visited some other people and it was good. The member that came out with us was a big basketball fan so he told us how the play offs were going. It sounds cool but not as cool as missionary work, and definitely not as satisfying. Wednesday morning Elder Hock got ready to take off. He left at around 9 and Elder Garcia-Gomez (my new companion) got here at around 9:30. He is full blown Mexican. He was born in Mexico but moved to San Diego when he was 9. So he has been here awhile but I still can't understand half of what he says. He is a cool kid. He had a different past but he’s on Jesus' team now so it’s all go. He works really hard and kicks my butt on the bike but waits up for me cuz I told him I had asthma and like everyone else he thinks I’m going to die if I do anything semi physically demanding. We had a lesson on Wednesday morning. They were nice people. The mom doesn't seem to want to commit to anything but they dad and the 14 year old son seem like this is something they have been looking for. I had a leadership meeting with the two other district leaders in our zone and the zone leaders. We just went over all our responsibilities because all three of us are first timers. Except the other two have been out 6 months more than me so they have more experience. It’s weird because I have no idea what I’m doing. But I’ll just keep working hard and doing what’s right and the Lord will bless me. After that meeting I had some lunch then we went out to visit some more people. We talked to some nice people. It was cool. We had a lesson with an old lady named Mrs. Kelley. She is like 80 something. She is looking for a church that fits her and she likes the LDS church a lot. But she doesn't like Mormons and she doesn't know that they are the same thing... we didn't tell her yet but we will this week. We had dinner with President Williams that night. It was awesome. He rocks. He is the stake president. We have gotten to know each other pretty well with me being here for my fifth transfer. I'm going to spend more than a 4th of my mission in the elk grove stake. I want to be a zone leader here some time. That would rock. After dinner we went and visited Clair. She is doing well as I said last night. Thursday morning we had district meeting. It was my first time training as a district leader. It was good. I trained on expecting miracles or Milagros as they say in Spanish as well as faith cuz they go together. Then we had lunch. We had two appointments after lunch that flaked on us but that’s how it goes some time. We visit a lot of good people. We tracted a bit then we had to go to dinner. There was a miscommunication and we went to the people’s house but they were dropping off at our house. They brought us pizza. We had pizza for dinner Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday nights. After dinner we taught a black lady named Lashanda. It was really good. We took a member with us. He taught real good but liked to teach things like baptism for the dead and stuff like that that had nothing to do with the first vision. But it was good. We went to Kyndras house to make sure she was still set for baptism. Her mom related to us that she wasn't going to get baptized yet because she has been bad and disobedient and she doesn't think she’s ready for it yet. But she doesn't know that baptism is what could help her most at this time. Friday we had weekly planning in the morning. We planned for some good things. It’s always interesting in the first weekly planning of the transfer because missionaries do it very different some times. The rest of the day was pretty weird. We talked to some good people. They were pretty nice. We tracted in the Ghetto and it was fun. We talked to a Jehovah witness for a while. She said she would agree with us if we didn't celebrate Easter. They are weird sometimes. We had some good dinner afterwards then we tracted some more. Saturday rocked! We had a mission wide leadership council. It was awesome. I felt weird because I was the third youngest missionary in the room. But I learned a lot and it was fun. That day was also Mormon Helping Hands where they go clean park and stuff but it was during the meeting. They had a huge BBQ for the stake and I saw a lot of old friends from the Elk Grove Park ward as well as the Waterman ward. It’s amazing how many people you meet out here. We saw a lot of people on Saturday. We didn't teach anyone but we met some really cool people on the streets. We had dinner with The Meisners, it was good. That night I got a flat tire so we had to walk home so I could fix it and by the time we got home it was 9. I fixed it though. Sunday was nice. We had a good church. I had to teach the lesson in gospel principles. It was good. It was on the gifts of the Spirit. We had dinner after church at a Meinh (some Asian language) person’s house and it was good though I didn't know what it was. Some meat soup with noodles or something. Then we called home! It was nice to hear that you had a fun time visiting. I had a good time waiting for the phone. The family was from Hawaii and they had a Ukulele even though none of them played it. I tuned it up for em and played a couple of songs out of the children’s song book. It was good and fun. After calling home we went to the church to meet the rest of the zone and set some good goals to find more people this week. Today was good. We played a good game of football. My team won. I say my team because I was the captain and picked winners. So it was good. Tell Grandma I'm sorry I didn't mention the camel in my last email. I did get the package. We all enjoyed the brownies and love the popcorn. The camel is hanging over my head on the bars of my bunk bed. So it’s all good. It was so nice to hear everyone’s voices. It was nice to hear more from Jeff this time. I miss you all a lot. It’s been year! This same date last year I gave my farewell talk. Its crazy how fast time flies. Well I have to go. Love ya all.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

May 3rd 2011

The royal wedding eh... Ha that was a random paragraph but it was good. So Karen, Dad and Jackie are all right! It is the Wedding Singer. One of the best movies ever. This week was great. Things have been really happening here in California. On Monday we went to see Clara. She is doing awesome! We shared some good spiritual thoughts. It was a good visit. Tuesday was a crazy day. We saw a few people in the morning. We talked to a lot of random people on the streets and stuff. Then we had lunch. We saw a few people afterwards then did a lot of tracting. Then we had to ride to the farthest part of our area for dinner, it was fun though and we had Costco pizza for dinner and I love Costco pizza. We tried to see some people after dinner but didn't have much luck. We went to Kyndras house to talk to her but she wasn't home yet but we had an awesome conversation with her mom. She is a nice lady but just doesn't know the truth and doesn't want to know. Kyndras grandpa was sick and wasn't going to make it and he really wanted to be there so they decided to push it back to mother’s day which made our ward members mad but I don't care because her mom is letting her get baptized so we won't argue it. Then we went and visited Clara again. She was getting her interview for baptism on Wednesday so we decided to prepare her for that. She is awesome. Wednesday was another good day. We had an awesome district meeting in the morning. It was good. Then we went on exchanges with random people in the zone. I went with Elder Watko who lived in Scottsdale till he was ten then moved to Utah. He is super cool and it was a lot of fun. I got the packages on Wednesday! It was awesome, even though it was confusing with three things celebrated at once. It honestly does not feel like I'm coming up on a year in the next couple of days. The last 6 months have gone by so fast it’s crazy. Elder Watko and I tracted a lot. He is in Spanish work so it was cool to talk to Spanish and actually talk to them. We had dinner with the Williams. He is the Elders Quorum president and she is the Young woman’s president. His dad is also the Stake President. It was fun though. We were able to help them learn how to do more missionary work. Then we went and picked up Clara with our ward mission leader. He is a great guy. We were early to the church so we took her into the chapel to play the piano for us. She is good. It was cool to see a white female version of Ray Charles. Then she had her interview with President Dalton, one of President Jardines councilors. He is a great guy. They both had a great experience. He said she was totally ready for baptism and said she prays so good she could teach a class on it, which is totally true. Clara gives amazing prayers. And we found out that night that her name isn't even Clara. It’s Clair but she didn't care. Thursday we went out and talked to a lot of people on the streets. There are some crazy people out here. The rest of the day after lunch was kind of lame. We didn't have anything cool really happen. We saw some people had a really good dinner though. An older couple took us to On The Border and I got me a chimichanga and man did it make me miss Mattas! It was good though. The wind has been ridiculous this week! It was so hard all the time and it’s only going with you in one direction but is against you in three. My legs are getting a great work out, that’s for sure. We saw Clair again because she was getting baptized on Saturday! Friday we had a great weekly planning. We saw a few people that lived on opposite sides of our area, which takes an hour to bike across and it was against the wind. Both weren't home but that’s how it goes sometimes. We had to get things ready for the baptism and we had a blitz in our area on Sunday we had to prepare for so we did that a lot on Sunday. We made calls and programs for the baptism. Then we went to Clair's to go over the program and show her or tell her how the baptism will happen with the hand placement and stuff. It was good. Saturday Clair got baptized! It was awesome. She slipped getting into the font and landed on her butt on the steps and she yelped out a loud scream and it scared everyone there. It was sad but she got in fine after that. She had asked me to baptize her so I did and it was awesome. She is great. Afterwards Elder Hock bought my lunch at subway for my birthday even though it was two days away. Then we went and saw a lot of random people. We had to finish up some stuff for our blitz on Sunday. A blitz for those who don't know is where all the missionaries in the zone go to one area to knock doors or if it’s a member blitz the members go with a missionary and see investigators in the area and part member families and potential investigators. It’s cool. So we had to make routes for everyone and maps and stuff. We went tracting and tried to see some people but no one was really home. We tried to see Kyndra like five times during the week but they never answered the door and she didn't come to church this week so were hoping for the best. Sunday Clair was supposed to get confirmed but she is an epileptic (spelling is probably wrong) and she had two really bad seizures that morning so she was in the hospital so that night Elder Hock went with a member and gave her a blessing. She is doing real good now. We had church and it was good. The blitz went great. I got to teach a Hindu guy and it was the biggest waste of time because he tried to teach us the whole time. He was nice though but said we shouldn't eat meat. I like meat. Monday was another day of goodness too. We blitzed two other areas from 10-12 then from 1-3 with a lunch buffet in between. It was a warm day and it drained me of all energy. It was fun though. We had dinner with the Bishop last night. He is super cool and loves cheese so he always has a bunch of different kinds and it was good stuff. We tried to see Kyndra again with no luck then we got our transfer calls... I was not expecting what happened. Elder Hock is getting transferred to be a senior companion with Elder Crager my last companion. I thought I was going to leave and he was staying but not so. I am staying to be the District Leader over the district I'm in. Hopefully I don't preach too much false doctrine. My new companion is Elder Garcia from San Diego. He is a Mexican and couldn't go to the MTC cuz he couldn't cross the California border. Ha. He is cool I hear and I’m excited to serve with him. He's been out for about 4 and half months now. I think.

So I have church at 1-4. We are planning on having a baptism for Kyndra after church at 4:30 so we probably won't be able to call till 5:30 at the earliest after church but that’s fine with me. We will have to see what my companion can do. So probably plan on 5:30 to 6 for the call. Well I have to go. I'll be speaking to you on Sunday so bye.

Monday, May 2, 2011

This is an experience that Elder Arnett had and shared with his Mission President, the Mission Presidents wife and other missionaries.It was the story that he told that made the Mission Presidents wife cry and he wrote this to us and sent it.We thought it was awesome and we wanted to share it with you.

April 29th 2011

So Elder Hock and I knocked on this guy’s door one day and his dad answers.He freaked out and said he didn’t want to waste his time with our false doctrines.Well we told him we wanted to talk to his son so he went and got him and we were talking while the dad was off in another room reading the bible.We talked for maybe 8 minutes then we were going to leave but before we did we just kind of explained our basic belief about the restoration.His dad freaked again and came running to the door and said “I don’t want to hear any more of your blasphemy!”So we started to walk away and he followed us outside and said he was going to escort us off his property.Well we got to our bikes and he was being a jerk and trying to rush us then he tried to tell us we believed in a different Jesus and he said it like 10 times.So finally I turned around and said “Last I heard there was only one” and that made him pretty mad then he started yelling something about how we must not believe in Jesus then and as we were walking out of his gate he said “when you die, Jesus is going to remember everything you ever did and what’s he going to think about you two?”Now I’m super angry so I turn around and look him straight in the eye and say “he’ll remember that I gave two years of my life to serve Him!”He had nothing to say to that and so he just stormed off.After that moment I was left in deep contemplation for the rest of the day.I thought, yeah I’ve given two years and I’m out here but that doesn’t mean I’m working or serving Him.A mission is pointless and has no meaning if you don’t give it your all.I realized that day that I wanted to start saving treasures in Heaven rather than be comfortable here.To really serve Christ I have to be exactly obedient.I have to talk to every single person I see and invite them to covenant with God and be baptized.And I have to teach with the spirit.That jerk of a guy has changed my mission.I haven’t been this tired or sore.I’ve grown a lot these last few weeks and its fun to be serving.That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.